For Me and My Gal (1942)

Black and white / 104 minutes

That's what I call a good musical.

Obviously WWII propaganda designed to bring back nostalgia for WWI, "For Me and My Gal" is a love story in the exciting world of vaudeville. It's interesting and fun the whole way through, from the grand orchestration of the opening credits, to the both upbeat and tear-jerking ending.

Gene Kelly makes his film debut as vaudevillian Harry Palmer, who is performing in a B-rate single dancing act. Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) performs in a much more polished, but still small-time act with two friends, Jimmy (George Murphy) and Lily (Lucille Duncan). They are playing in a small town on the same night, and when cocky Harry makes a pass at Jo unboarding the train, she immediately detests him.

Later that night, both are drinking coffee when Harry proposes that Jo join his act. She scoffs at him, but then he brings out a rendition of "For Me and My Gal", which he sings badly. In an effort to help, she joins in, and before long, they are performing a wonderful number. They pair up as "Hayden and Palmer", and of course, it isn't long before Jo falls madly in love with Harry. To complicate things, he lusts after Eve Minard (Martha Eggerth), who is a star. Even worse, Harry is drafted into the Army right before it comes his turn to be famous, and the whole group ends up overseas.

Judy is absolutely spectacular in this film. It's one of her first adult roles, and she handles it with sweetness and sensitivity. Her innocence is not at all contrived, and she separates herself, to a large degree, from the one-dimensional roles of her adolescence. She shades her work well.

Judy's musical numbers in "For Me and My Gal" were astoundingly good, and this film provided bountiful opportunities for her to really show her talent. Directed by Busby Berkeley, she pairs up in a difficult tap dance with Gene Kelly in "For Me and My Gal", and that doesn't hold a candle to the sensational "Ballin' the Jack", which in my opinion is the best dance number that she was ever involved in. She keeps right up to speed with his dancing, and their enthusiasm and chemistry is contagious.

Other notable songs that Judy sang were "After You've Gone", which was a big hit both on the radio and in her concert years; "How Ya Gonna Keep Them Down on the Farm", and "When Johnny Come Marching Home".

Supporting characters provided great performances as well, such as Martha Eggerth's charming and beautiful rendition of "Do I Love You?" and Ben Blue's corny tap numbers.

"For Me and My Gal" keeps a good pace, being thoroughly engaging from the beginning to end and never seeming to drag. Just when you think that you've seen the best musical number, a better one pops up five minutes later, and the enthusiasm keeps building and building until the end.

From the very first second that the characters walk off the train and begin talking, the excitement of vaudeville is captured. That form of entertainment was definitely vanishing by 1942, and now, it is so obsolete that most people know very little about it. The film does a great job of glorifying the era both with great spectacles such as "Ballin' the Jack", tunes of the time like "When You Wore a Tulip", and mundane, behind-the-scenes aspects like finding their dressing rooms, arranging music, and riding trains overnight. And of course, it stays true to every vaudevillian's dream: playing the esteemed Palace in New York City.

The DVD has great special features, including two rare Judy shorts, deleted scenes, and a radio production.

It reminded me a lot of "White Christmas", but I like "For Me and My Gal" better because there's more to the acting.

You would like it if you're: a Judy fan, a Gene Kelly fan, interested in vaudeville, or a fan of musical numbers. If you want both sensational songs and great acting, you should watch "For Me and My Gal".

You wouldn't like it if: the only reason I can think of is if you don't like vaudeville. Then it's definitely the wrong movie for you.

Rating: ****
Judy Score: ***